Pieper James is teasing her thoughts on ex Brendan Morais’ hard-launch with girlfriend Serene Russell.
“Guess it’s time for a story time,” Pieper wrote via her Instagram Story on Wednesday, March 19, alongside the eyes emoji.
Hours earlier, Brendan and Serene revealed their relationship while sharing a carousel of cozy images via Instagram. The pair captioned their post with a single white heart emoji.
Pieper, who first appeared on Matt James’ season of The Bachelor, sparked a romance with Brendan before hitting the beaches of Mexico for Bachelor on Paradise season 7. (Bachelor Nation met Brendan when he vied for the affections of Tayshia Adams on The Bachelorette.)
While appearing on BiP, Brendan insisted that his relationship with Pieper was “super casual” while pursuing a connection with Natasha Parker. When Pieper arrived on the show, she claimed that the pair were dating without “labels.”
Pieper and Brendan left the show after facing backlash from their fellow contestants. “This environment isn’t where we want to be at this particular moment. I think you all know and I am well aware, this is the girl I want to be with,” Brendan told the cast before exiting.
Us confirmed in October 2021 that Pieper and Brendan had parted ways. “Things went downhill once Paradise started airing,” a source shared exclusively at the time, adding that Pieper “had no idea” what happened before she got to the beach. “They tried to make it work but ended up deciding it was best to break up.”
Serene, for her part, appeared on Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor before making her way to BiP — where she met Brandon Jones. The twosome got engaged in the season 8 finale, but broke up less than one year later.
“After many months, today we have ultimately decided to end our engagement,” the pair wrote in a joint May 2023 Instagram statement. “We have tried to work privately on our relationship which has been incredibly challenging in the public eye. This has been immensely hard to accept and painful, as there is a lot of love between the two of us.”
The statement continued, “We are deeply hurting and can only ask that there be no hate. The best path for us at this time is to try and move forward and heal from this as individuals.”
Months later, Serene claimed that Brandon was unfaithful. He denied the allegations.
“In light of recent events that have transpired over the last few days, I’ve needed to take a beat to reflect and process my emotions surrounding this delicate matter that is intimate and personal to me,” Brandon wrote in an October 2023 Instagram Story statement. “Now that I’ve had a moment to digest, I want to clear the air and respond with my truth.”
Brandon continued, “To be transparent, before leaving for Texas, my partner and I made the difficult choice to go our separate ways. As this was a public relationship, we both decided to hold off on sharing the news until we mutually felt it was time, so we [just] shared the news with family and friends. … Unfortunately, during this time of private separation, coming back from Austin, a video [of myself dancing with another woman] came to light, that while harmless, made my ex-partner upset.”
